Situated to the north of North Philadelphia, the Olney-Oak Lane section of the city consists of places with familiar names such as Feltonville, Fern Rock, Logan, Melrose Park, Oak Lane, Ogontz, and Olney.
The area is about 65% black, 25% white and 8% Hispanic. Housing consists primarily of attached dwellings. Over 65% of the homes are owner occupied.
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia is one of the most expansive neighborhoods of Philadelphia and one that, in reality, is made up of many smaller neighborhoods bearing such names as Grays Ferry, East Oregon, Hawthorne, Marconi Plaza, Packer Park, Passyunk, Pennsport, Point Breeze, Queens Village, Tasker and many more.
The area is most famous for its depiction in Sylvester Stallone's 1976 film Rocky which included numerous scenes filmed on location along the waterfront, in the Italian Market, in the row homes and along the numerous narrow streets and street corners of South Philadelphia.
South Philadelphia is also home to the best cheesesteak shops in the city, the Philadelphia Sports Complex, where all major sports teams play, as well as the former Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Heavily Italian-American in many areas, South Philadelphia is almost 63% white, however, there are heavily black populated communities in areas such as Grays Ferry, Passyunk, Point Breeze and the areas closest to Center City.
Southwest Philadelphia
The area of the city known as Southwest Philadelphia is one of the more racially diverse areas of the city. With over 80,000 residents, southwest Philadelphia is 36% white and 60% black.
Southwest Philadelphia includes the areas of Bartram, Eastwick, Elmwood Park, Hedgerow, Kingsessing, Penrose Park, Schuylkill and the industrial areas near the Philadelphia airport.
Much of southwest Philadelphia continues to suffer from difficult economic times.
West Philadelphia
Beginning at the west bank of the Schuylkill River, West Philadelphia is a widely divergent community. In the area closest to Center City lie many of the city's major colleges and universities including Drexel University, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and the University of Pennsylvania.
City Avenue serves as the northwestern boundary of West Philadelphia. Here you will find St. Joseph's University as well as major areas of Fairmount Park. The Philadelphia Zoo and Mann Music Center, while in Fairmount Park are also in West Philadelphia.
As outlined in the Philadelphia Planning Commission's Plan for West Philadelphia, "today, 220,000 people, or about 14% of the City's population, live, shop, and in many cases work in West Philadelphia. These residents share many experiences, some of them unique to West Philadelphia: riding the trolleys into Center City, shopping at 52nd Street (West Philly's Main Street), picnicking and playing ball in Fairmount Park, driving between the support columns of the Market-Frankford El, tending neighborhood garden plots, participating in community meetings or school functions, attending the annual May Fair at Clark Park, and keeping up their houses."
As the report further states, "some West Philadelphia neighborhoods suffer the same ills that affect other older urban areas. Over the last several decades there has been a substantial loss of middle class population, widespread poverty, property deterioration and abandonment, main streets that have declined and don't present the best face of the community, deteriorating infrastructure, and too many incidents of crime against people and property that have had devastating impacts in certain neighborhoods."
"These trends, although not pervasive, are persistent and have affected the quality and the perception of life in the larger West Philadelphia community. The trends that contribute to these negative perceptions must be halted and reversed if West Philadelphia is to sustain itself as a viable urban community."
Approximately three-quarters of the population of West Philadelphia is black living in areas with names like Belmont, Carroll Park, Cobbs Creek, Haddington/Dunlap, Mantua and Parkside. There is also a predominantly white, heavily Jewish area in West Philadelphia in the Overbrook and Wynnefield sections of the city.
